Day 1
Our trip to Ghana started a bit rough. We woke up just a tad late (we had called a cab the night before and woke up when he arrived). We packed up in a hurry, Nate being Nate felt the need to take his time and shower ever so slowly. We got to the bus station and bought tickets from a man who looked like a mob boss. We had a bit of time before actually departure so we decided to go to the nearest McDonald’s for some breakfast (which was actually some lady at a stand that smelled like fish who cooked up some omelets). The bus was supposed to leave at 0830 but it didn’t actually depart until about 0930 which wasn’t too bad because at least it was air-conditioned. We had 24 hours to go so we tried to hold out from just plugging into our iPods right away. That lasted about 30 minutes before we got bored and started listening to music. When we got close to Po (the last city in Burkina before Ghana) we stopped at a military checkpoint where 2 armed guards climbed aboard to “escort” us into Po. Details as to why this is done aren’t very clean but it was still cool to watch. We crossed the border into Ghana around 11 or so. There are a ridiculous amount of checkpoints that we had to go through. So many Ghanaians tried to change our CFA into Ghana money but I thought we would just get ripped off. Nate actually traded in a mille and got 3 Ghana cedis. Best thing that he could have done because at the first stop in Ghana we stopped for our first break on the trip. Hugo has advised us to eat the fried rice and chicken so as we stood in line to buy some we realized that we only had 3 cedis and that is how much a plate costs. Nate and I had to share a plate of rice and didn’t have any money for a drink. It was pretty bad news. We were in a different country with nothing but a debit card and useless CFA. After about 6 more hours we made another stop where Nate and I hurried off the bus in search of someplace to change money. Luckily we found an ATM so Nate took out some cash. What did we buy first? A huge bottle of water. We actually over- paid for it but it was so worth it. The rest of the bus ride was pretty uneventful, mostly consisting of trying to sleep (impossible to do because the ride was so bouncy) and a stop for more rice (this time we each could have our own plate). It got late into the night so we tried to get some sleep…
Day 2
Sleep was pointless and needless to say was never in more than 15 minute intervals if you were lucky. We arrived in Accra at about 0630ish in the morning. We got in a taxi and headed the Salvation Army guesthouse. For 7 Cedis each we stayed in dormitory rooms…girls in one room boys in the other. Let me just say that you get what you pay for. At a price that cheap, we truly did get what we paid for. It wasn’t bad for just the one night. We freshened up and headed out to explore Accra. Given the fact that we had close to little money exchanging CFA was priority number one (to me at least, Nate thought breakfast was number one). We ate breakfast at a chicken place. It was surprisingly good, and then walked towards a bank. It just so happened that the bank that said it was open from 0900-1200 had a sign on the door apologizing for the fact that it would not be open that day. We met a guy on the street carrying bags. He asked us where we were from and when we told him that we are from Burkina Faso he started to peak to us in Moore! It turns out that he also was from Burkina. He showed us a place to exchange money. After we had plenty money we met up with our Burkina friend and he showed us where the grocery store was. Let me just say that Marina Market has nothing on the Koala Market of Accra. That place was AMAZING. After the market we met (and by that I mean I) bought a wallet from the guy to thank him for his help. It’s really cute. I’m glad we met that guy. Then came “Baby Rasta.” Baby Rasta is an interesting character that we met on our way to Osu Castle. He made Nate and I these really awesome bracelets. Needless to say I think we spent way more money and time then we should have with Baby Rasta, but he was a cool dude. After he finished making our bracelets we finally headed on to Osu Castle which was supposed to be a cool historical sight, but it turns out that it’s not actually open to the public. We were promptly stopped by a guy with a rather large gun telling us that we could not go there, point taken. After all the wandering around we decided that a beer was in order so we hit up a few more sights like the Accra stadium and the Eternal Flame (which happened to not be lit, go figure). It was really hot and a cold beer was sounding better by the minute so we walked on and stop at a pub. Nate and I both ordered Star which is a pretty decent tasting Ghanaian beer. We even got to drink our beer out of straws haha. Just trying to keep in classy. We saw pretty much all there was to see in Accra and continued bar hopping. After our second round we decided to go clean up and catch a late lunch/early dinner at Mamma Mia’s pizza place. I had a calzone, Nate had pizza. Mamma Mia’s had pepperoni pizza…ACTUAL pepperoni! Ghana really does beat Burkina. After dinner we walked around a bit, did a little shopping and retired back to the Salvation Army so we could watch a movie and go to bed early because we were planning to start our day early…
Day 3
0630 never came so quickly. I was so tired from the previous days travel mixed in with the fact that we had had very little sleep. The day started with a quick shower and then it was off in search of transport to Cape Coast. We were going to try and make it to Busua the same day, so we needed to get a move on. We got in a tro-tro that took up to the bus station where we could get in another one to get to Cape Coast. It was all so easy that something was bound to go wrong. There were cars that were leaving straight to Cape Coast that I suggested that we get on but Nate thought that we should walk around the station first. We ate a delicious rice and sauce breakfast and then set off to find a car. There was a sign that the car was going to leave to Cape Coast. When we asked him how long it was before leaving he said “oh we are leaving right now!” It sounded perfect to us…we should have known better than the think that right now actually was going to be soon. The driver of the car forgot to mention the fact that we would not be leaving until the bus was full. Nate was not happy with this. It literally took us close to 3 hours before we left and what people said would be a 30 minute ride to Cape Coast also took almost 2 hours. All Nate and I could do was look at each other and laugh. When we finally made it to Cape Coast we headed straight to Cape Coast Castle. It’s where slaves departed from Africa and headed to the Americas and the Caribbean. We made it just in time to catch a tour group going around there. It was really cool, I think. After the Castle we went to a museum and then decided that we needed to book it if we were ever going to make it to Busua. Everyone told us that it would be impossible to go there because it was a Sunday and we weren’t going to find a car. Little did those people know that Nate and I really didn’t have a plan so it we caught a car cool, if not, oh well; we would cross that bridge when we came to it. Luckily we managed to hop in the last departing tro-tro that was headed our direction. Sweet! We were pretty darn lucky. From there we just decidided to ride it out and figure out where we would go from the last stop. We saw some pretty interesting things on the rode, including an ice cream truck! Nate managed to hop off the tro-tro to get himself ice-cream and a slushy for me while the car was getting gas. After reaching the last stop we were still about 20km from Busua. A guy asked us where we were trying to go and pointed us to the direction of another car that was headed that way. 3 cars later we ended up in Busua but as it turns out you can’t get to “The Hideout” (the place we were going to stay at) at night. So a nice you man points us in the director of Elizabeth Inn. Now here I introduce James. James was a nice Ghanaian man who helped us get settled into a room for the night with a promise of taking us to the resort the next day. The room was 10 cedis, breakfast included. This was another one of those pay for what you get situations but the bed was comfy and the owner was nice. James took us out to show us the town. We went to a resort and had a beer then went back to Frank’s restaurant to eat some rice, chicken and sauce for some reason we ended up paying for James’ beer and food. By that point we were all tuckered out. James promised to meet us in the morning and take us where we wanted to go…
Day 4
There was a crazy storm early that morning. The electricity went out so the one fan that we had in the room was one for about a grand total of 3 minutes before it died. That was a sad situation but my God the bed was so comfy. It was like sleeping on a cloud. The next morning we woke up to hot coffee and pancakes with bananas. It was a great way to start the day. James showed up and told us that he was ready to take us to the resort. In Ghana its totally appropriate to wear shorts so we put our shorts and flip flops on and headed out. The walk was nice, along the beach we took our shoes off to walk in the water. It was magical. Until you reach the part where you have to climb a mountain. This is not an exaggeration. It was literally a steep uphill climb with our heavy bags. We got to the top drenched in sweat and really wanting some water. It’s steep on the way down too but I have to admit that it is very beautiful. We cross over a bridge and arrive at “the hideout.” This place is great. They have bungalows and tree houses that you can stay in. It’s right on the water and they have a bar and nice places to sit and relax. Finally! Alas our luck kicks in and I realize that I forgot my towel in the other town…Nate realizes that he forgot his shirt with his money and credit cards in the other town. Now we have to walk all the way back. We walk back and by this point we are tired and hungry. We meet a guy on the beach named Frank. Frank explains to us that he is the juice man. In the Lonely Planet guide book sure enough he is there as Frank the Juice Man. He tells us that he can make us fresh juice. We tell him that we will think about it and get back to him. We manage to get our stuff back and we were ready for lunch. I asked James if he knew where we could get any Fufu. He took us to a shack where some ladies were pounding away. The Fufu was amazing! Best I ever had, again we ended up paying for James (I was beginning to sense something was not right about this). We decided that we were going to swim to an island just off the coast of the beach but James told us that there is some sort of animal when you step on it, it stings into your foot. To this day we have no idea what he was talking about but not wanting to risk it we didn’t swim to the island. We met a French guy who made us coffee at his house and we let Frank the Juice Man make us a fresh orange pineapple and banana juice. It was amazing. We headed back over the mountain to get back to the hideout; it was a lot easier without bags. As quickly as possible we changed into our bathing suits and hit the beach. Words cannot describe how incredible it felt to be in the ocean. We swam until there was no more daylight left, drank juice, watched a movie and went to sleep…
Day 5
How glorious it was to just sleep without having any purpose the next day but to do whatever we wanted. We decided anyway to walk back over the mountain and hit up Dan the Pancake Man, and get some more juice from Frank the Juice Man. As we were walking out of the room guess who we run into…James. James had come to tell us that he lost his phone the day before and wanted to know if we would give him 30 cedis to pay for a new one. There it was, the end of our friendship with James. It was then that I realized that he was only being helpful to us because he thought we would give him money. Apparently paying for his meals wasn’t enough for him. After Nate talked to him and told him that we weren’t going to buy him a new cell phone we headed over the mountain, James of course volunteered to walk with us. It quickly became evident that we were going to need to not let him go around with us. While on the beach heading towards the pancake man, Frank comes up and asks us if we want some more juice today! How amazing that we just happen to run into him just as we were trying to figure out how we were going to find him. Frank the Juice Man is everywhere you need him to be. We tell James that we appreciate all that he has done for us but that we needed to continue on without him, in which case he asked us for 10 cedis to which we replied no and I think that’s the last we will see of the guy. It’s a shame because we thought that he was just a genuinely nice guy. Sad, but I guess everyone needs to make money somehow. Dan the Pancake Man was delicious; I had banana pancakes with chocolate. Sooooo good. Dan asked us if we were going to be around in the evening because he wanted to make us dinner. We weren’t going to but we asked him if it would be possible to come back the next day for lobster pancakes in the morning. He said sure and we headed out, back to the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and tanning and reading. It was totally relaxing. The beach that we are at has no seaweed, it’s super clean, and it’s the perfect temperature. We made our dinner reservation for 1830 and went in to clean up for it. Dinner was amazing. I had lobster stir fry with vegetables and fried rice, Nate had chicken curry with fried rice. It was really really good. There was some party going on here on the beach, the hotel lit a bonfire and there was music and drums. It was a lot of fun so we ordered some drinks and just hung out on the beach all night. Then we watched a movie and went to sleep.
Day 6
This day was a relatively simple and relaxing day. We started our day by heading back over the mountain to visit Dan the Pancake Man. He cooked up our lobster pancakes. Now I like pancakes, and I had never had lobster but the 2 together makes a surprisingly good combination. We ate those and instantly wished that we had ordered 2 each. Frank spotted us and asked us what kind of juice we wanted today (he knows us so well). I told him that I was really going to miss him when we left. He was a genuinely nice guy and those are really hard to come by these days. After pancakes and juice was asked around to try and find a bank. Nate and I had realized the day before that we really didn’t have any money left so that was going to be a critical part of the day. We took a taxi down to the bank and it was surprisingly quick. Came back and got our swim on. Spent literally the entire day in the water and on the sand. It’s days like this that I wish there were more hours of sunlight in the day. We had a great lunch at the hotel (I have vegetable curry with rice, Nate had red-red). After lunch we tanned and swim and read. I finished 2 books in our time at the beach. It was glorious. At one point in the day I realized that this was our last day at the beach. I was pretty darn sad about that. The beach leg of our vacation has definitely been amazing and I wish it could be longer. After a full day of swimming we made dinner reservations and cleaned up for them. After dinner we had some drinks and Nate and I played cards. When Nate and I play games things get a little intense so we asked these girls if they wanted to play. They did. It turns out that they are German and are just traveling around Ghana. We played a bunch of games with them and then called it a night. All in all great day. Nate and I watched a movie and went to sleep praying that the next day’s travel was going to be easy. We planned to cover a lot of ground in one day…
Day 7
Another early morning start. Tricked Nate into thinking that it was 0615 when we woke up but it was really 0600. I know how he likes to take his sweet time so that way I figured we might be on time for once. Nope, we were still late to meet our taxi. He ended up driving us to the next town over which was really convenient because that way we didn’t have to switch cars. We got to Takoradi and found a car going to Cape Coast. Having learned our lesson about tro-tro’s not leaving until they are full, Nate and I stopped to have some rice and fro-yo for breakfast. We finished in perfect time because by then we were the last 2 people to get in the car and we headed out. Upon arrival to cape coast we were instructed to ask for a taxi to take us to Kakum National Park. The taxi driver tried to con us into giving him more money by saying that it was far. That’s where my keen powers of observation kicked in and I saw a sign that said the difference. Needless to say he didn’t speak the rest of the trip. We got to Kakum and the guy said that he would wait and drive us back. We head into the park and buy our tickets to walk the canopies. Guess who we ran into there? We saw Sam, Brooke, Jason and Sierra walking out as we were walking in. It was funny that of all places to run into them it’s at a National Park. At Kakum we did the guided tour and then we got to the part where you do a canopy walk. That was so scary due to the fact that I’m terrified of heights but I’m glad I did it because it was amazing. Actually I kind of wished it had been longer. After the canopy walk you walk through the forest a bit on your own. Nate and I don’t follow rules very well so we got a little of the path and guess what we saw?! We were able to see 4 CHIMPS running around. It was so wild to see them just running around…in the wild. It was amazing. The odds of seeing them were really small so we were especially lucky/sometimes you have to bend the rules a bit to get to the good stuff. Unfortunately they were too fast for us to get a picture, but seeing them is something that I will never forget. The park was a great experience. After the park we headed back to Cape Coast to find a bus to take us to Kumassi. We were lucky enough to catch one but it took most of the afternoon to get there and it was a tight squeeze. We got to Kumassi and of course attracted so much attention because we are American. People wanted to know where we were trying to go, but we didn’t have a clue. We ended up staying at a hotel that was really nice and had air conditioning. It was a great way to end the trip. We had dinner and beer and soaked up the air-conditioning…
Day 8
We slept in and had a lot of time to kill until our 1830 bus back to Ouaga so we went to the Kumassi market. It was insane. It was so big and there was soooooo much stuff. I really wanted to buy a shirt that said Ghana but I should have done that in Accra because there were none. We just walk around and had lunch and explored the city. We went back to the hotel, watched some movies and then headed to the bus station. We had dinner and then got on the bus back to Ouaga…
My trip to Ghana was absolutely amazing. We literally went to Ghana without any plan. We just decided to go to Ghana, got visas, packed our bags and headed out. It couldn’t have gone better. It’s so beautiful there and there is so much culture and the food is amazing! If I could change one thing I would have made the trip longer but because Nate teaches he had to be back. The trip was fantastic!
